A South Dakota meat processor’s $1.9 billion lawsuit against ABC News began this week in a closely watched case that could have an impact beyond the size of any judgment.

In a South Dakota courtroom this week, Beef Products Inc. argued that a series of 2012 reports by ABC News’ Jim Avila defamed their chief product, which the company calls “lean finely textured beef” but critics have termed “pink slime.”

In his reports, Avila used the term “pink slime” 137 times to describe the substance, which results when beef trimmings are placed in a centrifuge to separate lean mean from fat and then treated with ammonia to kill E.coli and other bacteria, according to BBC.

BPI has called the reports false and defamatory and claimed that they nearly destroyed the business — the company claimed it lost 80 percent of its revenues and was forced to close three of its four processing plants.

“That success took about 30 years to succeed and it took ABC less than 30 days to severely damage the company,” BPI attorney Dan Webb told the court on Monday, Reuters reported.

Attorneys for ABC News have defended the coverage as accurate and protected under the First Amendment. Dane Butswinkas, an attorney for the network, said “pink slime” was a common term and had been used more than 3,800 times in the media prior to Avila’s stories.

He added that the company had lost many customers prior to ABC’s reporting, including McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell, according to the Associated Press.

“In order to win the case, the beef product company will have to convince the jury that ABC not only said something that is false, but they would also have to show that ABC acted with actual malice,” food attorney Ivan Wasserman told NPR.

The trial, which is expected to last eight weeks, is being held in Elk Point, South Dakota, which is located roughly 20 miles north of BPI’s headquarters.

Last November, election records showed that Donald Trump won 67 percent of the presidential vote in Union County, where Elk Point is situated.

8 Times Hypocrite Donald Trump Used the Kind of Anonymous Sources He Now Condemns (Photos)

On Sunday, Donald Trump derided the use of anonymous sourcing in news stories. He also said in February that news outlets "shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name." It's strange he thinks that, because he's used a lot of anonymous sources himself. Here are some examples.

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Two years after President Obama released his birth certificate, Trump said it was not believable to some people. "You know, some people say that was not his birth certificate," he told ABC in August 2013. "I'm saying I don't know. Nobody knows and you don't know either."

Trump so often sources information to "many people" (without naming any of them) that there's a well-worn #manypeoplearesaying hashtag on Twitter. The Washington Post wrote an article about it, which includes the examples on the next three slides.

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At a rally in September, a man in Trump's audience said President Obama was a Muslim and “not even an American,” then asked Trump to get rid of Muslim “training camps.”

“You know, a lot of people are saying that, and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there,” Trump responded.

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In early January, Trump said he had heard from many Republicans worried that his rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, was born in Canada.

“I’d hate to see something like that get in his way, but a lot of people are talking about it, and I know that even some states are looking at it very strongly, the fact that he was born in Canada and he has had a double passport,” Trump told the Post.

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In May 2016, Trump told the Post what some "people" believe about the death of Vince Foster. “I don’t bring [Foster’s death] up because I don’t know enough to really discuss it,” Trump said. “I will say there are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I don’t do that because I don’t think it’s fair.”

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Soon after Trump called for an end to anonymous sourcing, The Associated Press noted, "Members of Trump's White House team regularly demand anonymity when talking to reporters."

On Sunday, Donald Trump derided the use of anonymous sourcing in news stories. He also said in February that news outlets "shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name." It's strange he thinks that, because he's used a lot of anonymous sources himself. Here are some examples.